Former Facebook Employee Sues Over Overtime Pay

Former Facebook Employee Sues Over Overtime Pay

A former employee of Facebook has filed a lawsuit against the social media giant over allegations that she as well as other employees worked for over 40 hours per week without receiving overtime pay. According to the lawsuit, Facebook was able to skirt the overtime laws by having Susie Bigger and other workers classified as managers even though they didn’t have managerial power or responsibilities.

Per the lawsuit Bigger joined the social media giant four years ago but left earlier this year. Bigger was based in Chicago where she had a role in sales mainly involving assisting big advertisers to plan their ad campaigns. Lawyers for Bigger now want the case to be granted class-action status by the judge which would allow Bigger and her co-workers to sue in order to get compensated for lost wages. Facebook has indicated that it will defend itself against the claims.

U.S. presidential election

The lawsuit against Facebook comes in the wake of revelations that approximately 126 million users of the social network in the United States were exposed to content that was posted by operatives from Russia in the last 24 months. This is according to prepared testimony which the company submitted to a congressional judiciary committee before hearings this week.

According to the prepared testimony 120 Facebook pages which were backed by Russians created posts numbering over 80,000. Initially 29 million Americans received these posts directly but they were able to be disseminated to a bigger audience when users shared, liked and followed the posts.

“These actions run counter to Facebook’s mission of building community and everything we stand for. And we are determined to do everything we can to address this new threat,” the general counsel of Facebook, Colin Stretch, said.

Fake accounts

The fake accounts which were used to create the posts have since then been closed and the malicious actors reported to the American law enforcement agencies. Besides the organic posts Russian-backed actors are also believed to be responsible for over 3,000 advertisements which were created with a view to tilting the U.S. presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.

Facebook is not the only platform that Russian-backed actors used to influence the election as Twitter and YouTube have also reported similar activity. Google for instance recently admitted that ads worth approximately $4,700 were bought by people who had suspicious ties to Russia. The tech giant also discovered that about 18 channels on its video-sharing website were linked to a disinformation campaign of the Kremlin.

Google Announces Big Change to Search Algorithms

Calling it a “broad core algorithm update”, Google introduced its latest change in how searchers locate your website. Users might have noticed a change in their pages’ ranking already, although the update will continue to roll out over the next few days.

Google makes small changes to their search algorithms constantly but only makes three or four each year big enough to be mentioned.

As they’ve done after most of their larger search algorithm updates, Google was quick to announce that no changes were made to penalize existing pages. If a ranking went down, it was because someone else’s page was being under-recognized earlier.

The company tweeted, “There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded….”

The company also announced there is no “fix” to adjust to the new Google search algorithm. Google spokesman, Danny Sullivan, said he feels the “no fix” position by Google is helpful to webmasters and corporations trying to improve their websites.

“Hopefully, they think more broadly,” he said. Site speed and security are things everyone might try to update, but it really comes down to one thing.

“Want to do better with a broad change? Have great content. Yeah, the same boring answer. But if you want a better idea of what we consider great content, read our raters guidelines. That’s like almost 200 pages of things to consider,” tweeted Sullivan.

This is the link to Google’s rater guidelines: https://t.co/pO3AHxFVrV Sullivan verified that raters do not contribute to broad algorithm changes. He simply points out that great content covers all ills.

Whatever you do in response to the new Google search algorithm, you probably want to wait a little while for a couple of reasons.

First, the algorithm is rolling out slowly. Google verified that it might be Wednesday (August 8) before the entire package is running. What you see today might not be as bad as what you see Thursday.

Second, despite Google’s care to test and validate all updates before release, with as many as two trillion search requests rolling through each day, some anomaly or unintended consequence is bound to come up.

The company often, as in almost always, follows up major algorithm updates with an adjustment update soon after. If you see disastrous changes in your rankings, check if there is room for improvement. But don’t make radical changes for a week or so in case Google fixes it for you.

Google makes these search algorithm changes to enhance the experience of the people searching for what you sell. As more websites come on board, the company needs to assure that it matches the most relevant results to customer queries.

Uber Obtains 15-Month Probationary License To Launch Its Operations In London

Uber is currently valued at about $62 billion. Efforts of this controversial transportation startup last September to secure a license to run a private hire vehicle service in London turned out to be an exercise of futility.

The reprieve

However, there is a short reprieve for it following ruling by a judge hearing Uber’s appeal against Transport for London, which is city’s transportation regulator. Uber was served with a 15 month provisional license after it succeeded at demonstrating that it had been playing nice lately. It is looking forward to satisfying conditions set by TfL.

The interested parties are following closely to see what happens with Uber’s push to obtain a regular five-year license, but there is hope considering the recent ruling by court.

To reach her final decision, Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot considered substantial documentary evidence that was presented. She was convinced Uber modified its practices a huge deal and also illustrated it would adhere to the same in the future. She decided to give it a chance.

Major developments

TfL was ordered to make a payment of about £425,000 in the form of court charges for this case. It was way back in 2012 that Uber was established in London and reports indicate it started off with about 300 drivers in the first year of operation.

Numbers are moving higher as we progress and a person well conversant with the matter says the figure has moved up to 48,000 registered drivers in 2018. Tom Elvidge, the UK general manager has outlined that there were almost 3.6 million riders using it over a 12-week period.

A lot of changes need to be put in place and one of them is proactive reporting of outrageous incidents. There is need to ensure drivers operate only in those areas where they have been licensed.

In launching its arguments, TfL outlined that it was necessary for the steps of Uber to be looked at from the context of the way it conducted itself in the past. TfL took a stance that Uber was to be provided with a shorter license than the one it had been awarded previously.

The director of licensing regulation and charging at TfL Helen Chapman opined, “We’ve had five years of a very difficult relationship, where Uber has felt that it hasn’t required regulation. Frankly frustrating that TfL was made aware of issues via the media rather than Uber.”

News & Record Is Selling Its Downtown Property After Moving To New Location

The News & Record has signed an agreement to sell off its property located in downtown Greensboro. The company’s 6.5-acre property is located at 200E. Market St. and occupies the block between Davie and Church Streets and Market and Hughes streets. Unconfirmed reports have indicated that the newspaper intends to sell the property to one of the main players who intend to build the Westin Hotel across Davie Street from the building.

Undisclosed buyer

The News & Record announced that the parties agreed on the terms of the deal on May 4 and the deal is expected to be closed in the third quarter of 2019. The company did not however reveal the buyer of the property.

However, according to The Rhino Times the buyer is Greg Dillon the president of Dillon Development based in Maryland and who is involved in development of a parking deck. The development is being undertaken in partnership with the city of Greensboro and will be part of the Westin Hotel. However, when asked about the potential buyer, Daniel P. Finnegan, an editor and publisher at News & Record did not confirm if indeed Dillon was the buyer.

After selling the property, News & Record is expected to move to a new location in Greensboro in the later 2019 or early 2020. This is after being in the current location since 1976. After the closing date, the company has the option to lease the property.

The paper no longer needs such a big facility after moving its press and mailroom operations to Winston-Salem. The News & Record property, which is owned by BH Media Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway has been regarded as the most outstanding opportunity for redevelopment in downtown and has been up for sale since the last fall when the newspaper shifted to a new location.

Mixed-use property

According to Zack Matheny from Downtown Greensboro the owners of the property will have to put to mixed use if they are to maximize it. The property could be used for restaurants, retail, hotels, residential and offices. The newspaper did not quote the selling in its announcement.

The newspaper has been reducing its staff, which has in turn reduced the amount of space required. The company has scrapped 50 positions across all its operations in the last one year. 36 of the positions where in Greensboro. Early this year, the company announced that its advertising sales had declined and was scrapping nine other positions.